Technomancer: Genesis Chapter 7: Forward

"s.h.i.+t!", Michael thought.

"I shouldn't have said that I was planning to just say Mama but, she was going to breastfeed me so I panicked and said, I don't want to eat right now. I can't take that back now."

Looking at the past week he had never felt so humiliated, although he knew of course that this was for his well being. It was really awkward having to drink milk from the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of another human being. It was sort of unnatural for him, especially as he came from modern times where food was already prepared before you could buy it. On meat, the blood was thoroughly drained, the vegetables were already picked and harvested. Drinking another person's bodily fluid thoroughly irked him. He had to be patient but he could not endure doing this for months on end. There was never a scenario in his head where he would get used to this. He was also very disturbed during times he had to relieve himself. Someone had cleaned his private parts thoroughly. Which also disturbed him as he was very much capable of cleaning himself. He saw it as someone looking after his shame. He was actually a patient man but this situation made him a little rattled adding on to the fact that he really wanted to know what was happening and how things work around this world. He could not wait to move on to the next phase of his development so that he could ask the myriad of questions that were buzzing inside his brain.

He had discovered many things about his surroundings during this period of time as he a.n.a.lyzed their speech. He understood around a third of what they said. He was right in his conclusion before that he retained his eidetic memory but he was perplexed as to why this was so since he inhabited a new body. It was just his consciousness that transferred. Of course, the nuances from body to body would change. Just like transferring data to one computer to another. The receiving computer did not necessarily have the same hardware as the source computer. It truly baffled him but he was grateful as he did not need to struggle learning about this world.

He seemed to be living in a castle. The chairs and the tables were exquisitely made and crafted but there was no electricity. He did not know how many rooms there were yet as he had not been moved around much, and he did not dare walk around. He stayed in his room to be safe. Some of the rooms were lit using a strange gem, but not all. Most of the rooms had torches. This gem did not seem to be powered by electricity but something else. It did not look radioactive as well as the light it gave off was too bright for that. It was peculiar and he really wanted to study it. But as for the time being, he could only endure.

He had suspected that he was from a well-off family. Given the nature of the house having no electricity even though they were wealthy, he suspected that the society he was born in was somewhat primitive. He did not know if other societies in this world were advanced or everywhere else had the same technological progression.

During the past week, he tested the effects of the heightened state of consciousness he kept on experiencing. He saw his "mother" engulfed in light whenever he activated the heightened consciousness.

"Hmm, so their aura seems to be connected to this consciousness."

The feeling was erratic somehow but slowly he got used to it. It was like an ebb and a flow like water he could fully control with his mind. He tried to manipulate it while no one was looking. He sat up to test if he could control some organs controlled by the autonomic nervous system. He discovered he could fully manipulate almost everything inside his body. He could fully control his adrenal glands, strengthen tensile strength of his muscles, he seemed to even control bone density for some reason. It baffled him.

"Why do I have the ability to do this?"

But when the consciousness dissipated the changes he made to his body would also subside. When this happened he would immediately be exhausted and start to sleep again. But the state seemed to never be fully retracted some of it retained, it was just that he spent most of it.

He noticed that he could maintain this state longer as he practised it. It was getting easier and easier to control but sometimes things would go haywire and it would seem that the ebb and flow could not be controlled, but this was a rare occurrence. He surmised that this was because he was an infant that full control was still not possible.

"Maybe I'll be able to fully control this feeling when I am older."

The consciousness would last from half an hour to eight hours. If he used it to move or do complex tasks this duration would decrease to a third of the time limit. He could sense the surrounding area with closed eyes for up to around ten meters. This behaviour was noticed by his "mother" and he immediately tried to act normal and sleep when she was near. For some reason, there was a time where he could not sense her and it was too late as their eyes met. It was awkward and then he pretended to sleep again. He attributed this occurrence to his sense of understanding about the state of consciousness.

"This woman saw me sit up. Newborns can't sit up."

"I blew my cover again. Since the cat is out of the bag I'll try to speak to her tomorrow and say, Mama." I'll see how she reacts from there.

Who would have thought this situation would happen again? He had a slip of the tongue. Now he was really in deep trouble.

His mother was utterly dumbfounded when she heard him speak.

"Okay son, what do you want to do?"